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🗞️ Search Updates and News from Search Engines

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​Google fixed its ranking issue on August 20
​Google / Google Search Updates
​The Google ranking issue that started on August 15 was fixed on August 20.

• ​Google’s John Mueller On August Core Update vs. Ranking Bug Effects by Matt G. Southern​

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​Google Quietly Launches New AI Crawler: Google-CloudVertexBot
​Roger Montti / Google Product Updates
​Google quietly added a new bot to their crawler documentation that crawls on behalf of commercial clients of their Vertex AI product. The documentation says the new crawler may crawl sites at the site owner’s request.

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​Google Confirms AI Overviews Affected By Core Updates
​Matt G. Southern / Google Search Q&A
​John Mueller confirms core updates impact the search engine's AI-powered overviews.

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​Google Search Console Search Appearances Documentation Updated
​Barry Schwartz / Google Documentation Updates
​Google has expanded and clarified its documentation around how Search Appearances work within the Google Search Console reports.

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​Google’s Revamped Documentation Shows 4 Reasons To Refresh Content
​Roger Montti / Google Search Guidelines
​Google's updated Video SEO documentation shows four strategies for improving your content's effectiveness.

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​Help! Google Search isn't indexing my pages [Video]
​Google Search Central / SEO Made Easy
​Martin Splitt discusses why the Search Console may display some of your website pages as ‘Discovered - currently not indexed’ and what you can do to remedy the issue.

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​Bing Webmaster Tools or Google Search Console: A Comparison​
​Fabrice Canel / Bing Search Trends
​Fabrice shares the top 3 features and insights that make BWT a valuable asset in your SEO strategy. He also compares several of BWT’s features with those in GSC, highlighting how each tool can enhance your SEO efforts.

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​Working With Search Console API [Podcast]
​​​Google Search Central / Search off the Record
​In this episode of Search Off the Record, John Mueller and Martin Splitt talk with Mihai Aperghis about how he started his SEO agency, built tools, and his role as a Product Expert in the Search Central Help Community.

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​​Don't wait until next week to learn about the latest search updates! Subscribe to the SEOFOMO News Whatsapp channel​

🚀 ​The SEOFOMO State of SEO Consulting – Survey 2024 Results

The results of the SEOFOMO SEO Consulting 2024 Survey are in!

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Between July 21st and August 21st, 2024, we gathered insights from 337 SEO specialists who provide consulting services—whether full-time, part-time, independently, or within agencies.

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I want to thank all the SEOFOMO subscribers and friends who participated, and take the opportunity to announce the winner of the SEOFOMO mug and hoodie giveaway: Liraz Postan!

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Now let’s review the results. This survey offers a comprehensive look at the current state of SEO consulting, highlighting common challenges, preferred tools, and anticipated trends for the coming year.

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Here are the most compelling insights that offer a deeper understanding of today’s SEO consulting landscape:

1. Most of the SEO consultants prefer to focus ongoing SEO processes (79%) rather than one-time SEO consultancies (56%).
2. Most SEO consultants get their clients by clients or other companies referrals (77%) rather than other channels such as events (25%).
3. Most SEOs provide consultancy through video conference calls, team messaging platforms and project management systems, with only 35% mentioning in-person meetings.
4. A high share of SEOs find it more difficult to sell SEO now vs a couple of years ago (43%) as well as harder to achieve SEO goals (58%).
5. An increase in competition and complexity, as well as frequent Google Updates and limitations in client budget or resources, were mentioned to cause the growing difficulty in achieving SEO goals compared to a few years ago.
6. Most of the sites that SEO consultants have been working on have seen a positive effect from a Google Update or haven’t been affected in the last couple of years, and those who have been negatively affected in the last couple of years by a Google update, answered that their sites have recovered after taking action.
7. The top SEO tools used for SEO consultancy work are Screaming Frog, Semrush, Google Search Console and Ahrefs.
8. Most SEOs who took the survey are leveraging AI tools or functionalities in their SEO consulting activities.
9. Most SEOs expect Google updates favoring certain types of sites (such as UGC or big brands) as well as their own features or services and the inclusion of AI Overviews to become a real threat to SEO consulting efforts in the next year.
10. A focus on content quality and EEAT, traffic diversification as well as staying up to date are the most common proactive approaches by SEO consultants to tackle the current SEO consulting challenges and threats.

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​Learn more insights about the state of SEO Consulting in 2024 in the Survey results.​

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👌 This week's SEO Awesomeness

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​HCU to August Core Update traffic changes for 2,398 sites​
​Ian H / Search Trends
​Ian tracked the traffic changes for thousands of ad-monetized sites to see how they performed during the August Core update.

• ​Some Google Helpful Content Update Resurrections With August Core Update by Barry Schwartz​
• ​Some of the biggest search visibility winners and losers so far since the start of the Google August 2024 Core Update release by Aleyda Solis​

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​Google AI Overviews, organic results overlap jumps to 99%, analysis finds​
​Danny Goodwin / Search Trends
​"The sources cited in Google AI Overviews now match one or more of the webpages from the top 10 Google organic search results 99.5% of the time."

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​The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything is Fake
​Lars Lofgren / Search Trends
​Lars shares the different ways spammers spam Reddit with affiliate links. “Google is 100% responsible for how insane the spam has gotten on Reddit”.

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​Local SEO Testing: What It Is & How to Do It + Testing Examples
​Celeste Gonzalez / Local SEO
​Celeste shares how local SEO testing can boost your business conversions including a 122% increase case study.

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​How to Become an SEO Conference Speaker
​Ryan Law / General SEO
​Start with webinars and internal presentations, speak at local meetups, and speak from experience. Ryan asked experienced SEOs to share their best advice for aspiring speakers.

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​How to Find & Fix Orphan Pages
​Ryan Jones / Technical SEO
​Orphan pages can harm the organic search performance of your meant-to-be-ranked pages. Ryan shows how to identify, fix, and prevent them effectively.

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​How To Craft A Winning SEO Strategy
​Kevin Indig / General SEO
​Create a winning SEO strategy with Kevin's expert tips and insights, where he explains how to avoid falling into the tactics trap, and learn how to prioritize and seize opportunities.

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​How To Identify & Reduce Render-Blocking Resources
​Abby Hamilton / Core Web Vitals
​Identifying and reducing render-blocking resources helps ensure visual content loads fast. Abby shares how to identify and reduce them in this comprehensive guide.

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​6 Underrated Keyword Research Methods — Whiteboard Friday [Video]​
​Sofia Tyson / Keyword Research
​Target competitor-branded keywords, implement structured feedback groups, and map content to funnel stages. Sofia goes through six underrated methods to enrich your keyword lists in the latest edition of Whiteboard Friday.

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​How to Enhance Your Product Listings with ProductVariant Schema
​Valentina Izzo / Ecommerce SEO
​Valentina explains the intricacies of the ProductVariant Schema, its definition, the benefits it offers, and why now is the ideal time to implement it.

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​Balancing Optimization With User Intent
​Gabriella Sannino / General SEO
​Learn how to balance technical SEO and user intent with impactful, user-focused content creation for better ranking and higher conversions.

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​Simplifying Google Updates And Communications For C-Level Stakeholders
​Dan Taylor / SEO Management
​Simplify Google updates for C-level stakeholders. Learn how to communicate key takeaways, business impact, and actionable insights.

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​8 Remarkable SEO Podcasts to Level Up Your Knowledge
​Shreelekha Singh / General SEO
​With dozens of SEO podcasts vying for your attention, choosing the right ones can be overwhelming. Shreelekha shares the top 8 SEO podcasts to help you stay ahead of the curve.

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​​See more SEO Conversations in the SEOFOMO Forum or get the latest SEO news alerts in the SEOFOMO News Whatsapp Channel.​

💸 Latest SEO Jobs

• ​SEO – Regional Content Manager (Asia) at Wise​
• ​SEO Strategist at Critical Mass​
• ​SEO Executive at Adria Solutions - Marketing Recruitment Agency​
• ​Senior SEO Manager (Contract) at AUQ​
• ​iGaming SEO Specialist at North Star Network​
• ​Associate, SEO (Contract) at Growth Marketing Pro​
• ​Account Strategist at Marketeering Group​
• ​SEO Specialist at Stride​
• ​SEO Manager at Pumpkin​
• ​Senior Manager, Technical SEO at Adobe​
• ​Digital Marketing Specialist, Marketplaces at WHOOP​

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​See more SEO Jobs in the SEOFOMO Job board and subscribe to the email alerts​

🛠 Free(mium) SEO Tools

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​AI Overviews Visualizer
​Market Brew
​Explore how Google includes your content (and their embeddings) in its AI Overviews.

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​Search Analytics for Sheets [Chrome Extension]
​Mihai Aperghis
​Retrieve data and create automatic backups from Google Search Console into Google Sheets.

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Are you looking for more SEO Tools? Take a look at the SEOFOMO SEO Toolbox​

🎙️ Upcoming SEO Events

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​SEO for Paws 2024 - Support Ukrainian Animal Shelters
​Anton Shulke / Online / Free / September 25, 2024
​Join SEO for Paws on September 25 for a day filled with inspiring talks with the charity livestream featuring John Mueller, Aleyda Solis, Gianluca Fiorelli, Gerry White, Natalia Witczyk, Bibi Raven, James Wirth and more.

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​GreenSEO Fringe Event​
GreenSEO / Brighton, UK / Free / October 2, 2024
​Join Rowan Chernin, Aaron James, and more to discover how SEO practices can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of websites through sustainable digital strategies.

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​See more upcoming SEO events in the new SEOFOMO Events Section​